In an electrophotographic printing process, a toner image on a media is fixed by feeding the media through a nip formed by a fuser member and a pressure member in a fuser subsystem and heating the fusing nip, such that the toner image on the media contacts a surface of the fuser member. The heating causes the toner to become tacky and adhere to the media. However, the toner particles of the toner image can stick to the fuser member besides adhering to the media, resulting in an image offset. If the offset image on the fuser is not cleaned, it may print onto the medium in the next revolution and result in unwanted image defects on the print. To overcome this, conventional fusing technologies apply release agents/fuser oils to the fuser member during the fusing operation. Another approach to circumvent image offsetting is the use of polymeric release agents in the toner, e.g., in oil-less fusing. Furthermore, in oil-less fusing, wax is used in toners to aid in the release of the toner image. Oil-less fuser surfaces are generally made of the Teflon® family of polymers, for example, PTFE, PFA due to their thermal and chemical stability, low surface energy and good releasing properties. Although, a smooth Teflon® fuser surface is hydrophobic (water contact angle ˜110°), it is oleophilic (hexadecane contact angle ˜43°). This oleophilicity makes the transfer of wax to the Teflon® surface favorable during oil-less fusing, leading to fuser contamination by toner materials and wax ghosting. This oleophilicity also leads to robustness issues related to release and stripping over the life of the fuser because of the natural affinity of organic materials.
Thus, there is a need to overcome these and other problems of the prior art and to provide an oleophobic and hydrophobic fuser surface in an oil-less fusing technology to enable robust, offset free, ghost-free oil-less fusing.